Yes, people specifically eat the flower bud in the spring. How they are eaten depends on the species. All cholla buds need to have the spines removed in order to eat them. This is easiest to do by burning them off. Buds will also need to be cooked until tender and then have the skin peeled off. Boiling is the best method for cooking most species as it removes oxalic acid, making it more edible. The cooked buds can then be served like artichokes or other vegetables.
Javalina, deer, rabbits, and even humans eat cactus. Various birds eat the fruit of the Saguaro and Prickly pear. Insects, birds, and bats pollinate the cactus.
The cactus wren nests in cholla crevasses as well as suguaros and a couple of other desert plants
reed junco
About the only animal that will attack a cholla cactus are scale insects that suck the fluids from the plant and can eventually kill it.
alot
Cactus wrens usually nest in the cholla cactus. This very spiny cactus provides protection for their eggs and young from predators such as snakes.
Cactus wrens and Cholla cactus are symbiotic. The cactus wren builds its nest in the spines of the cactus, providing a safe place for the bird to raise it's young.
No, it is illegal to remove any cactus, living or dead, from deserts in Arizona.
A jumping cholla is a plant and produces its own food by photosynthesis.
There are dozens of species that grow in the Sonoran Desert. Some of the better known are:Saguaro Cactus Organ Pipe Cactus Fish hook Barrel Cactus Teddy Bear Cholla Cactus
During the 1940s and 1950s, they made furniture from the cholla (aka jumping cactus) plant. That included those lamps that had the cactus skeleton as the base. Tequila is made from agave cacti.
Roses, prickly pear cacti, Jumping cactus (cholla)